Vulcan salute

The Vulcan salute is a hand gesture popularized by the 1960s television series Star Trek. It consists of a raised hand with the palm forward and the thumb extended, while the fingers are parted between the middle and ring finger.

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The Vulcan salute was devised by Leonard Nimoy, who portrayed the half-Vulcan character Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek television series. A 1968 New York Times interview described the salute or greeting gesture as a "double-fingered version of Churchill'svictory sign". Nimoy said in that interview that he "decided that the Vulcans were a 'hand-oriented' people".[1]

The salute first appeared in 1967 on the Star Trek second season opening episode, "Amok Time". Among other things, the gesture is known for being difficult for certain people to do properly without practice or the covert pre-positioning of the fingers, and actors on the original show reportedly had to position their fingers off-screen with the other hand before raising their hand into frame. This difficulty may stem from variations in individuals' manual dexterity. Its reputation is parodied in the motion picture Star Trek: First Contact when Zefram Cochrane, upon meeting a Vulcan for the first time in human history, is unable to return the Vulcan salute gesture and instead shakes the Vulcan's hand.

The blessing gesture which was the inspiration for the Vulcan salute

In his autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by JewishKohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (ש), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the salute. The letter Shin here stands for El Shaddai, meaning "Almighty (God)", as well as for Shekinah and Shalom. Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue, where he saw the blessing performed and was impressed by it.[2]

Others often greeted Nimoy with the salute,[3] which became so well-known that in June 2014 it was added to version 7 of the Unicode standard as U+1F596🖖raised hand with part between middle and ring fingers.[4][5] The White House referenced the salute in its statement on Leonard Nimoy's death, calling it "the universal sign for 'Live long and prosper'",[6] and NASA astronaut Terry W. Virts posted a photo on his Twitter feed from the International Space Station the next day, showing the hand gesture with the Earth in the background as the ISS passed over Nimoy's birthplace of Boston, Massachusetts.[7]

The gesture was also used as a greeting by the alien character "Mork" in the 1970s television show Mork & Mindy. The gesture was accompanied by the phrase, "Nanu-nanu". In the show it is used as a handshake, with the thumb remaining positioned against the side of the palm.

^"Theodore Sturgeon". Gary Westfahl's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Film. The SF Site. Archived from the original on 2009-09-13. Retrieved 2015-03-30. In that episode, [Sturgeon] also wrote one of the series' standard catchphrases, the Vulcan greeting 'Live long and prosper.'

^Leonard Nimoy (2015-02-22). "@TheRealNimoy". Twitter. Archived from the original on 2015-03-06. Retrieved 2015-03-04. A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP

^Originally published in 1725 by T. Warner in London. H. D. late Clerk to Justice - H. D., Defoe, Daniel, attributed name (October 2007) [1725]. The Life of Jonathan Wild, from His Birth to His Death (2nd ed.). Ann Arbor, MI, US: University of Michigan. p. 24. Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2015-03-30. Before the Sessions, Jonathan, tho' retain'd on the other Side of the Cause; visits Mr. Powell, tells him of the dangerous Circumstances he was in, and at the same Time enquires into the Value of his personal Estate; the Thief apprehended his meaning, and made him sensible that forty Pounds should not part them, (for it seems this Fellow never came into Jonathan's Books) whereupon the Bargain was struck, the Money paid down, and Mr. Wild left him with this Blessing, Live and prosper.

Gershom, Yonassan (2009). Jewish Themes in Star Trek. Archived from the original on 2012-07-05. Retrieved 28 February 2015. A page by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, with photos and diagrams of how the Salute forms the Hebrew letter Shin, the use of the Blessing Hands gesture on Jewish gravestones and jewelry, etc.